Fade Out
by inkheart9459
Summary: After all the bad guys have been defeated Emma's life is boring and patrols are like watching paint dry, until she sees a guy stumbling down the street in the middle of the day like he's drunk. Except he's not drunk, in fact he looks a little undead. Then things get interesting.


So, Zombie AU, guys. Definitely some gore, definitely some people dying, nothing explicit or heavy handed, but you should be aware. 2nd day of the 30 day AU challenge. Look. I managed to stay on time for two whole days! So enjoy guys.

* * *

Emma cruised down Main Street yawning. Another boring day in Storybrooke. After Zelena had been taken down crime had plummeted leaving Emma's daily patrols just one step up from watching paint dry. Today, even cranking The Rolling Stones wasn't combating her boredom as she wound her through Storybrooke's quiet streets. Maybe when she got back to the station she'd find something good on Netflix and tune out for the rest of her shift. It's not like she'd be missing anything.

She turned onto Pine Street and let the car carry her forward, eyes sweeping lazily over the never changing landscape around her. You'd never be able to tell that the curse had broken, everything was still the same. Then again Emma wondered if that wasn't just the curse of small towns in general.

A couple walking a dog down one side of the road caught her eye. They waved at her as she drove past. Emma waved back a tad bit too late for them to see, but Emma didn't quite feel bad. They never thought their illustrious savior did anything wrong. She may or may not have used that fact to get away with a few less than agreeable things in the past few months, but it they hadn't be illegal per se, just frowned upon, and it had kept her life at least a little interesting.

Another turn and she was on Meadow Road. She squinted as she came around the corner. At the end of the street there was a man. He looked like he was stumbling, but Emma couldn't be sure from this distance. She sped up a little and made it far enough to clearly see in a few seconds. The man was stumbling, almost drunkenly down the street away from Emma. She kept going and pulled even with the guy.

"Hey, buddy, you ok?" She asked.

The man didn't turn towards her but let out a groan. Emma's face scrunched. Something wasn't right with the guy. She was going to have to stop and check on him, that much was obvious. At least her day was getting a tiny bit more interesting.

She parked the car quickly and got out. The guy hadn't stumbled far in the meantime. Emma walked slowly over to him, talking the whole way while she was approaching behind his back like she would a frightened animal. Maybe he'd hit his head somehow and wasn't quite all there but was trying to stumble home without really realizing it. It made sense. Or maybe he was just on a bender and was _way_ far gone. Also made sense and was probably more likely.

Emma got close enough to lay a hand on his back. "Buddy, listen, I'm going to call an ambulance, ok?" She turned him around to face her and almost screamed. She jumped back quickly and grabbed the grip of her gun. The guy looked like he was playing some kind of half assed Halloween zombie, with his eyes milky and sunken, his cheeks gaunt and pale, and his mouth bloody.

"Alright, buddy, nice you scared me. Jigs up though, it's not Halloween. You can't just go around like that. You're gonna scare a bunch of kids and then I'm going to hear about it. As much as I want some action around here, bitching moms aren't exactly the action I was hoping for."

The man groaned again and took a shaking step forward. Emma's grip tightened on the grip of her gun. She popped the strap holding it in place slowly as she took a step back.

"Funny, scaring the sheriff. I know, I've messed with my fair share of cops too, always a laugh, but I'm going to have to ask you to lay off or you'll be spending the night in one of the cells, got it?"

Another shambling step forward. This time the man started sniffing the air like some kind of beagle. Emma slowly took her gun out of the holster, but didn't flick the safety quite yet.

"One more warning then things are going to get real. If this is a practical joke you really don't want it to go there, buddy."

The man lunged for her, moving faster than Emma had seen any human move unless they were powered by magic. Emma dodged out of the way and flicked the safety off quickly. She brought the gun up to point at the man who was turning around, limbs flailing in an odd way. Emma swallowed hard.

"Try that again, buddy and I will put a bullet between your eyes." She gestured with the gun.

A long, low groan escaped the man's mouth. Emma's hair stood on end. She was beginning to think this wasn't a practical joke. But that was crazy zombies didn't exist.

Then again, neither did fairytale characters and look where she was.

Another lunge and Emma pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession. Two bullets hit home, one in the guy's stomach, one in the leg, but he didn't stop, the wounds didn't even bleed. Emma fired off another shot into his chest and took a few big steps backward. A few shambling steps and the guy had righted himself yet again. The shot to the chest hadn't even fazed him.

Emma saw him start to move again and she didn't hesitate this time. She sunk a bullet right between his eyes. This time the guy dropped like a sack of potatoes. Emma took a shaking breath and took a few steps forward. She used the toe of her boot to flip him over. The head wound hadn't bled either. It was almost like there was no blood pressure when the bullet had hit. But that wasn't possible. The guy wouldn't have been alive and moving.

Unless he wasn't alive. Emma took a look at his face again. What had looked like makeup on first glance now looked terribly real. The guy really looked like he was dead and not a few seconds dead. He looked like he'd been dead a few days at the least.

Emma glanced up and around her again. Was this some kind of new threat? Had some new magic practioner figured out how to raise undead armies or something? Was it just a fluke of all the magic flying in the air? But that couldn't be it. Dead was dead to magic, much to everyone's frustration.

She heard the sound of shuffling foot steps behind her. Emma whipped around to see a group of three people who looked exactly like the guy she'd just shot heading towards her at a shuffling pace. Emma grabbed her keys and made a run for her cruiser. There was no way she was sticking around for this. She had to get somewhere and figure out what the hell was going on. She had to protect everyone.

She had to protect Henry. Her mind shot to Regina. Regina would know what to do. And even if she didn't she could erect a shield around them to protect Henry. She could set up a command center there behind the shields and call everyone in town and warn them. They would get through this just fine just as soon as Henry was protected.

She jammed the keys in the cruiser and burned rubber towards Mifflin Street.

* * *

She burst through the door of the mansion a few minutes later. Emma whipped the door closed and threw the locks in one motion. She heard the click of heels as Regina walked down the hall to see what the commotion was about.

"Emma? What in the world are you doing here?"

"Can I answer that later? Right now I need you to put a barrier spell up that'll keep everyone and everything out."

Regina's face scrunched, confused. "But why would I need—"

"Just trust me, Regina, do it." Emma stepped closer to Regina, almost close enough to touch.

Regina's eyes scanned her up and down for another second before nodding. She closed her eyes and the purple glow of her magic surrounded her hands. Emma, on an impulse grabbed one of Regina's hands and wove her own magic into the spell Regina was casting. Her eyes slipped closed as Regina's magic slipped gracefully over her own, directing it and strengthening it to form a shield twice as strong as any the two of them could form on their own. A golden purple burst of light exploded from them and surrounded the house.

Emma took the first deep breath she had since the man had lunged at her. Henry and Regina were safe now. She could concentrate on other things.

Wait, Regina?

She shook her head, didn't matter. There was no time to sort out that little thought process. Emma rushed to the living room and picked up the TV remote. She flicked to Storybrooke's local channel, but it was all static. Great. She couldn't use that to get the word out. Hopefully the local radio station was still up and running. Emma needed to get the message out to stay inside immediately.

Taking a chance she flipped over to CNN. The remote hit the coffee table loudly as she stared at the screen. Regina, who had followed her in the room after shaking off the after effects of the shielding spell, came to stand beside her. A tan hand covered perfect red lips.

"Emma, what is this?"

Emma's eyes scanned the screen. God, she wasn't sure she knew what it was and she'd just shot down one of them not even half an hour ago. Huge groups of people who looked exactly as the man she'd shot shuffled across one corner of the screen while the news anchor prattled on and on about how people were not to go outside and how to protect their homes.

Emma turned towards Regina. "I think we're in the middle of a real life zombie apocalypse." She started laughing hysterically. God, only in her life would that actually be a real thing and not fucking science fiction. Things that were supposed to stay in books and movies never seemed to anymore.

Regina's face stayed glued to the TV, absorbing all of the information coming at her. Emma swallowed and looked back again, starting to feel nauseous. They weren't exactly editing the footage to save the audience the gore. Emma wasn't squeamish at all, but some things weren't meant to be seen. People being ripped literally limb from limb in explicit detail wasn't something that should be put on TV, yet there it was.

The anchor came back and started to prattle on again about the safety precautions everyone should take. Emma reached down for the remote again. There was no need for them to subject themselves to more of this. Regina stilled her hand as a breaking news banner lit up the screen.

"Breaking news," the news anchor intoned. "The cause of this epidemic seems to be a genetic mutation caused by a drug that was undergoing its first stages of human testing. While it had no side effect on the animals it was tested on, this new medicine, which was supposed to cure HIV, seems to have caused a spontaneous genetic mutation in humans. Early reports are saying that the disease is being spread through the saliva of those affected. The mutation slowly kills off all normal cells, leaving barely living husks to support a restricted set of bodily functions. These restricted bodily functions include the digestive system and the neurological functions, but do not include keeping the heart beating, thus leading to the rotting appearance of these people. The only way to kill these creatures is to shoot them in the head, but that is highly unadvised. People are to stay indoors while the armed forces try to bring the problem under control."

The man launched into his safety speech yet again and Emma flicked off the TV. She swallowed and sat down on the couch behind her. Regina joined her a second later. They sat in stunned silence for a long time before Emma shook her head and stood up.

"I need to try and call the radio station, get the word out on the air waves for those people who aren't at home or don't have TVs. Any chance you have a list of phone numbers for town residents?" Emma looked down at Regina.

Regina shook her head. "Not here, at my office." She glanced out the window in the living room. It was a bright, beautiful day on the cusp of summer. It didn't quite match with what was going on in the world, as Regina watched a few people shuffle oddly down the street.

"But it's a little too dangerous to go get that right now." Emma started to pace the room. She had the radio station's number and she had her friend's numbers. If she told them all to act like a phone tree and call everyone they knew and tell their friends to do the same she could warn the town that way. It wasn't optimum, but she was working with what she had.

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed. The radio station's number rang and rang. She gave up after a straight minute of ringing. She could call back later. She dialed Mary Margret's number, but got no answer. Same with David. And Archie. And Leroy. The list went on and on until she finally called Ruby.

"Emma! Oh my god what's going on?" A crash sounded in the background.

"Ruby? Where are you?"

"The Inn! Oh my god, Emma, we were in the middle of a lunch shift when some guy just stumbled in and started attacking everyone. Everyone who was ok ran back into the freezer and locked ourselves in, but like an hour after that a couple of people who'd managed to get bitten started acting weird and it just all went downhill from there. I have no idea where Granny is anymore. I haven't seen Snow since the original attack. I just—I have no idea what's going on, Emma. I'm holed up in the attic just hoping no one finds me."

"Have you been bitten?" Emma asked urgently.

"No."

"Ok, Ruby just stay put, ok? Regina and I will figure something out. Until then try calling everyone you know and seeing if you can reach anyone, ok? We'll try to get all the survivors together and figure something out from there."

"Alright, Emma."

"Bye, Rubes."

Emma hung up the phone and scrolled through the rest of her contact list. The convent was last on the list. She called, not expecting an answer, but Nova picked up.

"Hello?" Her voice shook.

"Nova? Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, all of the fairies are, but they're trying to get in. The doors aren't going to hold much longer no matter how much magic we enforce them with. We're running out of fairy dust."

Emma ran her hands through her hair quickly. She glanced over at Regina. "Nova, do you think you could lower the wards enough to let me and Regina through? So far we've been holed up at her house and we've been fine."

A giant crack and a chorus of screams echoed through the line. "Oh god, they're in."

The line went dead a few seconds later and Emma just stared at her phone. She swallowed hard and hit the end button. Regina looked up at her, worriedly.

"We're now sans fairies." Emma pocketed her phone. "What would it take to rescue Ruby?"

"I'd have to lower the wards for us to teleport out, but after that we could just grab her and go."

Emma nodded. "Ok, ok. Can you put a ward just on Henry's room instead? We need to save as many people as we can, but—"

"Henry has to stay safe first."

"Yeah."

Regina nodded. "I'll be right back."

Emma paced and paced the living room until Regina came back. She looked much grimmer than she had when she'd went to go ward Henry's room. The other woman walked to Emma.

"I told Henry what's going on. He called Ava and Nicholas and Paige. None of them answered."

"Jesus. How the hell is it spreading so fast? This morning everyone was fine."

Regina shrugged. "I have no idea, Emma."

Emma grabbed Regina's hand. "Ok, let's go get Ruby."

Regina nodded and a second later they were consumed in a puff of light purple smoke.

* * *

They appeared in the top floor of the inn. Emma looked above her and the entrance to the attic was right above them.

"Ruby!" She called just loudly enough that she knew the wolf would hear.

A second later Ruby opened the hatch and climbed quickly down. She landed between the two women and pulled them both into a hug. Emma hugged her back hard. Regina settled for a nice firm pat on the back.

"Thank god." Ruby sounded like she'd been crying. "I called everyone. The only one who answered was Belle. She's in the back of Gold's shop. Somehow one of them got their hands on Gold's dagger and were wielding him like a weapon for a long time until they got hungry and took a bite out of him. Belle watched it all from one of Gold's safe rooms. He's one of them now, I didn't even think that was possible. I thought he was supposed to be immortal."

Ruby pulled back to looked at the others.

Regina shook her head. "Immortal doesn't mean invincible. Especially since the person had his dagger. The Dark One has to bend to the will of anyone who holds it."

Ruby shivered. "Can we go get her?"

Emma nodded. "We can do that."

"Call her and tell her to drop whatever wards they are up around her. We need to be able to get as close to her as possible." Regina shot a look at Emma for agreeing so quickly, but went along with the rescue anyway.

Ruby nodded and stepped away to make the call.

Emma looked at Regina. She looked worn. Emma was pretty sure she did too after a day like today, but somehow the look didn't sit right on Regina. She was regal and always in control, but she wasn't now. Emma squeezed her hand.

Regina looked up at her. "It this even real?"

Emma laughed humorlessly. "I'm not even sure anymore."

Ruby came back at that moment. "She's dropping the wards in a second. We have to get there quickly. They're outside the shop again."

Both of them nodded. Emma grabbed Ruby's hand. Her magic meshed with Regina's once again and pulled in some of Ruby's essence and they were gone once again.

They appeared in Gold's shop just long enough to grab Belle's hand and were gone a second later just as glass shattered in the background.

* * *

All four of them appeared on the floor of the mansion in a heap. Emma felt more exhausted than she had in a while. Transporting so many damn people had taken it out of her. She kept ahold of Regina's hand for one more second, willing her magic into the other woman once more just to feel the barrier resurrect itself. With that, her eyes fluttered closed and she fell into a fitful sleep filled with blood, gore, and death.

* * *

A couple weeks passed slowly. They were all on edge. Power had stopped a few days into the first week. Water had stopped two days after that. Emma had predicted both, having watched her fair share of zombie movies. She'd never been more thankful for cheesy B movies than she had when she'd turned on the tap to refill one of their many filled water jugs and nothing had come out. They'd had enough water to last them a while already stored.

But now that some time had passed they were at the bare minimum that they could survive on. Henry was the only one that was getting more. All four women had agreed on that without even really discussing it. Henry was the one who got the most water and the most food. He was the one that was going to come out of this just fine, they were all determined to make it so.

Regina and Emma sat in Regina's study. It had become their place over the past few weeks. Belle walked in and out sometimes grabbing books to research something magical that could help them against the zombies, but usually the other two women stuck to the living room or the guest room that had become theirs. Everyone was quiet and no one spoke much, but when Regina and Emma did speak it was almost always to each other.

"We have to do something, Regina. We're going to starve if we don't."

"It's too risky."

"So is starving to death. If I'm going to choose a death I'd rather it be quick and painful than long and painful."

Regina scowled. "We aren't going to die, Miss Swan. I can simply just conjure some food from the store."

"But we've already went over this, you can't do it without dropping the barrier and you have to conjure small quantities at a time. By the time we actually got enough to last us for a while we'd have been vulnerable for too long. They're fucking circling us, Regina. We can't drop the barrier for longer than maybe a minute before we're somebody's fucking snack."

"What do you propose? What other option is there? No matter what the barrier has to come down."

Emma flopped back and stared at the ceiling. After a few minutes of staring an idea occurred to her. "Does the entire barrier have to come down for us to teleport?"

"I don't suppose it does, but I've never done it. Our essences don't need a lot of room to get out." Regina pursed her lips. "But what do you suppose we do once we're out? We can't carry that much, Emma."

"We can carry a lot more if you shrink it down. We both wear a backpack and you shrink everything down we shove two backpacks full of food and water and we should be good for a little while."

Regina sighed. "I admit this isn't one of your more harebrained schemes."

"Wow, Regina, I think that was a compliment."

Regina rolled her eyes. "But we're testing everything out before we do this for real. I can erect a barrier around the room and see how much space in the barrier it takes to teleport us in and out and we'll shrink down the food and water we do have and see just how much we're risking our lives to get. If it isn't enough, Emma, we aren't doing this."

"Ok, but it will be enough."

* * *

And three days and a number of tests later it was enough. They had worked out everything from start to finish enough times that Emma was sure that'd she'd dream of the plan in her sleep that night.

Emma and Regina stood in front of Henry, Belle, and Ruby with bags and backpacks, as many as they could carry. Ruby and Belle looked on, clutching each other's hands hard. They had strict orders to watch Henry and if anything happened to them they were to take care of him in their stead.

Regina hugged Henry hard and barely had the strength to let go. Emma ruffled his hair fondly. Anything more and she was pretty sure she'd break down crying and that wasn't exactly what she needed right now. When they both stepped back Regina grabbed Emma's hand and they were off in swirling smoke.

* * *

The grocery store looked untouched. It smelled absolutely foul, rotten meat and vegetables, but the canned and dry foods sections didn't seem to have anything touched. Emma and Regina ran quickly and quietly into the aisles. Regina set to work shrinking everything in sight. Emma shoved everything into their bags quickly. She winced as she saw some of the labels. Canned kale. She wasn't even sure if a zombie apocalypse could stir her to eat that. But she faithfully shoved everything in. Canned kale could keep her from starving one more day if it came down to it.

When half their bags were full with food they shuffled quickly to the bottled water aisle. They had almost everything filled up when they heard footsteps. Emma motioned for Regina to continue. They needed water badly. They couldn't stop now. She would take care of this. She whipped out her gun and prowled forward silently.

She whipped around the corners of shelves like she was a cop searching a house for hostile people. Emma wasn't seeing anything, though. Maybe they had just imagined the footsteps? They were in a high stress environment after all. Emma felt her heart beating triple time against her rib cage. She shook her head and turned around. It was probably just the adrenaline. Besides, Regina needed to be protected if anything was in here.

She had walked a grand total of three steps back when it dropped from the tops of one of the shelves onto her. Emma screamed as she fell, her gun skittering away down the aisle. She swung up, hitting cold mushy flesh with as much force as she could. It didn't knock the figure off of her, just caused it to groan loudly. She bucked up hard to try to dislodge it, but it was no use. It had her arms pretty well pinned under it and she had no leverage. Still, she squirmed on hoping that she'd find an opening soon.

The thing looked down at her, head cocked. It blinked slowly and reached out to caress Emma's face gently. Emma wanted to throw up. God, no a fucking zombie was not fondling her. She bucked harder.

When it lowered its head down, mouth opening widely, Emma knew it was the end. She was going to be one of them or killed in the next ten seconds. She desperately hoped that it was going to kill her. She really, really didn't want to be a fucking zombie.

It sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She screamed long and loud. God, whatever that thing's saliva was made out of was like fucking acid. The zombie sat up and Emma could swear that it was trying to smile at her. What was fucking with this thing?

A gunshot rang out from behind her. A bullet wound appeared in the middle of the zombie's head and it dropped down on top of her. Emma scrambled out from underneath the zombie and scrambled backwards until she collided with a set of legs. She looked up and Regina was staring down at her, still clutching Emma's gun.

Emma stood up quickly. "Come on, we have to go. The sound will draw more of them. Did you get everything we needed?"

Regina nodded silently.

"Ok." Emma hurried back to the aisle they'd been in and picked up all her bags. Regina appeared beside her a second later and grabbed her arm in a vice grip. They were gone from the grocery store a second later.

* * *

Emma dropped the bags in the kitchen and turned to Regina. "Ok. We're home." Emma swallowed hard. "Now shoot me before I fucking turn into one of them."

Regina shook her head. "I can't. We'll find a way to stop it."

"Belle hasn't found anything, Regina. I know you haven't either. This shit starts turning you in like an hour. Just fucking shoot me. I can't endanger you or Henry. Do it."

Regina flicked the safety on the gun instead. "No. Until the last possible minute. I can't lose you without a fight."

Emma looked up at Regina for a long moment. What she found in the other woman's brown eyes made her swallow hard again.

She stepped back. "Ok. We'll try—"

That was all she got out before a scream tore itself from her throat. An excruciating shooting pain was radiating from her shoulder outward. Emma had felt pain before and a lot of it, but this knocked her to her knees. Another intense wave crashed over her and she passed out.

* * *

She faded in and other of consciousness for a long time. She wondered if this was what being a zombie was like, never really being truly awake again. She could deal with that. At least then she wouldn't be aware of the people she was ripping limb from limb. She really didn't want to think about that.

But then she kept hearing voices. Regina's voice, sometimes accompanied by Belle's or Ruby's, rarely Henry's. She couldn't be a zombie if they were around. They would have had to kill her. Unless she had turned them into zombies, but then again zombies didn't speak. It was too much for Emma to process.

"She hasn't turned yet, Belle, if I need to I'll put her down, but for now she's still human. Don't tell me that you wouldn't do the same thing for Ruby."

Emma heard Belle's response but couldn't comprehend it. She faded out once more.

* * *

The next time it was only Regina's voice. For some reason Emma thought it was quite late at night, though she had no concept of time. Regina's voice was soothing and low, speaking to Emma.

"I know you're going to come out of this, Emma. If anyone can it's you. You're too stubborn to let something like this take you. You were too stubborn to let me drive you out of town, a bite like this is nothing compared to the wrath of the Evil Queen. So, you come out of this right now Miss Swan. Our son is waiting for you." Regina stopped speaking for a long time before Emma thought she heard her add. "I'm waiting for you."

But it was so faint that she might have imagined it. She faded out once more.

"You're the White Knight, Ma. Zombies are evil. So you have to wake up. It just makes sense," Henry rambled on.

Emma wanted to wake up and ruffle his hair. How the kid could be so optimistic in the middle of the zombie apocalypse was beyond her.

"Besides, everything in my comics says that you would have turned by now if you were going to turn into a zombie."

Pages rustled near her head.

"See, Ma. Right here it says it should only take a day. There's another one back in my room that says a week but you've been out longer than that."

Again pages fluttered.

"So could you just wake up? I miss you, Ma. I think Mom does, too, but she'll never admit it. Ruby and Belle have each other. I think she really misses having you. I'm sure if everything was reversed you'd be the same way. You know, I never really saw it before, but the White Knight and the Evil Queen being together…it really makes sense."

Emma wanted to smile at that. Her and Regina together. Huh. Since when had she wanted that?

Since long before she'd shown up on Regina's porch at the start of the apocalypse, her subconscious replied. But Emma faded again before anything could really latch on.

* * *

Ruby was here this time. She could tell by the smell. It almost smelled like freshly washed dog with odd hints of human perfume. It wasn't really unpleasant; it fit Ruby nicely. The younger woman didn't say anything, just sat in the room with her. Eventually a hand found hers and squeezed. Her best friend was with her. She faded again with Ruby's hand still in hers.

* * *

The next time she came to she was more awake. She felt everything this time, all of her body parts, and she could think clearer than she had in a long time. Regina was with her again, speaking in that low soothing tone that Emma had come to love.

"It's been a month, Emma. We're all worried. We really are. We've figured out that you're magic has stopped the mutation and is correcting it. Or well, Belle did, the rest of us stood back and watched her. I didn't even know the girl knew so much about science, but then again she's always got her nose in a book I should have known. It looks like you're magic is winning, but it's slow going. Belle thinks that maybe after this you'll be immune. She's going to test your blood afterwards to see if perhaps we can make a vaccine for her and Henry at least. Apparently my magic fights off the infection as well, and Ruby's wolf genes prevent her from mutating. So her and Henry are the focus, but if I don't have to lay in bed for a month, I'll be grateful."

Regina grabbed Emma's hand and started to stroke the back of it with her thumb. "It's funny, if it all works out you'll have been our savior yet again. I don't see how you do it, even if you sleep it seems you can't stop saving people."

Emma heard the rustle of clothing as Regina stood. She leaned over Emma. Emma could feel the woman's body heat wafting off of her and sinking into Emma's skin. She almost found the strength to open her eyes but just couldn't do it quite yet. Next time, she promised herself as she started to fade. Regina's lips on her forehead were the last thing she felt.

* * *

Emma finally managed to open her eyes to find Regina collapsed asleep on the other side of bed. She reached out and gently ran her fingers through the now shoulder length hair of the Queen. A sigh escaped her. She'd wanted to do this for a long while, while she'd been asleep. She'd had so many odd dreams between fading in and out, almost all of them involving Regina and quite a lot including Henry.

Regina's eyes fluttered open under her touch. She blinked rapidly, like she couldn't believe her eyes. "Emma?"

"Yeah, it's me." Emma cleared her throat. She sounded like she swallowed a bull frog.

Regina lunged across the space between them and drew her into a hug. Emma hugged back with all she was worth. Regina pulled back to look at her.

"I'm so glad you're awake."

"How long was I out?"

"A month and a half."

Emma winced. "Jesus."

"We were beginning to wonder if you'd ever come out of it."

"Well, I came out of it." Emma smiled. "Where are Henry and Ruby and Belle?"

"Ruby and Belle are off…celebrating. They've become quite the couple since you were out."

"Celebrating what? Or are you really just that afraid to say having sex?" Emma cocked an eyebrow.

"They're having sex to celebrate the fact that Belle was able to create a vaccine of sorts for everyone with your blood. Is that blunt enough for you?"

"That was really real?" Emma asked sitting up slightly. "I heard you talking about it as I was fading in and out but I wasn't sure what was real and what was a dream."

"It's real. We still can get ripped limb from limb by the zombies, but at least we're safe from being one."

Emma smiled. "That's real progress. Pair that with our magic and we might be pretty well off considering."

Regina looked at Emma. There was that look again, the one she'd given Emma before she'd passed out. Only this time it didn't make Emma swallow hard, it made her heart flutter. Regina leaned a little forward, leaving bare millimeters between them.

"I think now that you're awake we're a little more than well off." Regina leaned forward and kissed Emma gently.

Emma responded eagerly, sinking into the kiss. And maybe it wasn't perfect. And maybe the world was literally ending around them. But for now they had each other and the zombies could go fuck themselves until the next day. There were better things for her to be thinking about.

Her arms encircled Regina and pulled her closer, kissing her deeply.


End file.
